


Wish I May

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: I just wanted to write this okay, I promise I'm not a Mary Sue, I'm Not Ashamed, No Romance, POV First Person, Rated for My Sailor Mouth, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, please give it a chance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:57:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: At the very moment the clock struck midnight and announced my 18th birthday was upon me, I was given a chance I'd always wanted. I thought it was a dream, and when I found out it wasn't... Well, I went along with it anyway.Updates the 18th of each month (if possible).





	1. A Chance Like No Other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a self-indulgent side project I'm working on as a birthday present to myself, posted for the first time today, on my 18th birthday, and only started yesterday. Please bear in mind that I am A) not an expert in the storyline of Kingdom Hearts or how the characters act, and B) not going to make myself the most powerful character in the story. Sora technically has that covered, and I won't deprive him of that for a _lot_ of reasons, not least of which being the fact that I don't like Mary Sues/Gary Stus and don't want to be one.  
>  Anyway, I wrote this just because everybody, at some point, has a self-insert story, and I figured this might as well be mine. It was inspired, in part, by a story over on ff.net that I first read many many years ago, and if you're interested in reading that 100 chapter odyssey, hit me up and I'll link you to it.  
> Enjoy!

The clock on my laptop read 11:48.

I was trying not to concentrate too hard on it, doing as much as I could to pay attention to something else, _anything_ else. _Forensic Files_ played in the background, drowning out any other noises that I might possibly hear in the middle of the night. Once upon a time I’d actually watched the episodes, but I’d seen all of them so many times it was useless as anything except background noise. It did its job fairly well, regardless.

A google document was open on the screen of my laptop, progress halted in the middle of a sentence.

 _“The other didn’t stir, so he took the opportunity to get up and go about some semblance of a morning routine while he waited for his left arm”_.

I knew where I wanted to go with the sentence, and where I wanted to go with the chapter in general. But I was distracted, unable to work on the only multi-chapter story I was updating at the time just because I was so concerned about something that wouldn’t really change anything.

The time changed. 11:49.

In 11 minutes I would be 18 years old, and I wasn’t sure how to handle that. On the one hand, that meant a great deal of freedom for me that I hadn’t had before. On the other, it also meant that I now had a great deal more responsibility. Sure, I wasn’t going to be out on my own yet, and I wasn’t under pressure to get a job by my parents, but I knew that the moment the clock struck 12 I would start pressuring myself, and it wouldn’t be good for me at all.

I already exist in a constant state of stress, after all. There was no reason to put myself under more, but I knew it would happen.

11:50.

I finally finished up the sentence, determined to ignore the mental countdown to my birthday. It didn’t matter, it was just another day. I was up until after 12 _every_ night for the past week, this was no different. This was no different at all. I wasn’t staying up out of anticipation, no way.

Predictably, my attempts to convince myself of that were unsuccessful, but it did manage to waste some time while I jotted down a couple more sentences.

11:54.

Panicking? Me? No way, perish the very thought.

I clicked out of the tab I was working in. There was no reason to keep staring at it now that I knew I wouldn’t be getting any work done. Instead I repurposed a tab I’d already had open, redirecting it to my email so I could check the state of affairs concerning all of my stories - you know, comments/reviews, faves, kudos, alerts and subscriptions - all that fun stuff.

There was nothing new, although one of the authors I was subscribed to had updated a story I was following quite religiously. I considered reading through the new chapter, but it didn’t deserve anything less than my full attention, which it wouldn’t have at this point in time. Instead I flicked my eyes down at the clock again. I knew it hadn’t been _that_ long since I’d last looked, but it’s a bad habit I always end up indulging when I’m concerned about the timing of something.

11:55, now.

I swallowed and scrounged my email for anything I could distract myself with without feeling bad for not giving it my full attention. I found nothing, despite scrolling through two pages of emails in two different folders. And I mean that as two pages per folder, rather than just two pages altogether. Probably could have been clearer on that.

Anyway, again, it didn’t take a whole lot of time to do so, even though I tried to be as thorough as possible. I just wanted 12:00AM to come and go without my notice so I could worry about this stuff later.

Why is it that, when you _want_ time to fly, it drags by? But when you want something to last, it’s over all too quickly? Seems like a scam to me.

I went through one of the pages of emails again, sure there was _something_ I could pay attention to for a few minutes. All I found were previous chapters of the story I was investing a lot of interest in and a couple others I’d been following. There was nothing I could occupy myself with there.

That made fairly clear to me, I clicked into another tab I had open, this one displaying a fic I’d been reading for what was probably the third time, to my memory. An older story from an author I was pretty fond of back when I was fairly new to fanfiction, in which the author had been transported into Kingdom Hearts due to a mishap with a magic book. It was, admittedly, an old favorite of mine, and one of the few stories from that time period that I still remembered the name of, let alone the author.

Presently, I was on chapter 26, and I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired to continue reading. However, if I wanted to distract myself at all, it would be a good way to do so. After all, it wasn’t like I had anything better to do, and I enjoyed the story anyway. What better way to pass the time?

Another glance at the clock. 11:59.

My mouth felt dry. It was almost time.

When it ticked to 12:00, a new window suddenly opened on the laptop, catching my attention. Pop-ups weren’t common, for me, at least not on that laptop. They were actually few and far between, and to be honest they were usually pretty mundane stuff - advertisements for games, things like that.

This one, however, had the look of an error message or alert.

 _“Would you like to have your own adventure?”_ It read. My options were “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe.” After a moment’s consideration, since I knew it could be a virus of some kind, I gave into curiosity and clicked, “Maybe.”

The pop-up closed, and a new one opened in its place. _“Where would you like to go if you did have an adventure of your own?”_ This time, my options were somewhat suspicious to me. “Kingdom Hearts,” was the first, followed by “Sonic the Hedgehog (Games).”

Again, my curiosity got the better of me. I hovered my cursor over both options for a moment before deciding on Kingdom Hearts, as that was where my mind was at the moment. And, again, the pop-up disappeared only to be replaced by a new one.

 _“Which would you prefer?”_ The options were, “Follow the storyline,” “Choose your own adventure,” “In-Between,” and “Wild Card.”

This one took a great deal more time to decide. Following the storyline would have its benefits, of course, because that way I knew what would happen and could prepare accordingly. However, if Liam’s misadventures had taught me anything, it was that knowing what would happen before it happened wasn’t always a good thing. Meanwhile, choosing my own adventure also had plenty of its own benefits. That way I wasn’t constrained by the railroad tracks of the storyline and I couldn’t mess anything from canon up too badly since I wouldn’t be pretending to be something (or rather some _one_ ) that I wasn’t.

I glanced at the clock to see how much time I’d wasted thinking about this, but found it still displayed 12:00 as if no time had passed at all. I knew that it had been at least two minutes - that couldn’t be right.

I decided to ignore it and considered the Wild Card option only very briefly before deciding I really wasn’t keen on it. I wanted to know which level of Hell I was dropping myself into by doing this. No matter if it was just some crazy little dream or a weird virus or actually happening, I don’t like having control taken from me in situations like that.

It was with some trepidation that I moved my mouse over “In-Between” and clicked.

The pop-up that appeared this time said, _“When would you like to begin?”_ The options for this one were “Birth By Sleep,” “Kingdom Hearts I,” “Chain of Memories,” “Days,” and “Kingdom Hearts II.” There was, also, of course, a button allowing me to go back, though it had been absent from the other pop-ups. Experimentally, I clicked on Birth By Sleep, and was met with a list of worlds to choose from in that time period. Clicking on each of the others had the same effect. I could even start on Destiny Islands at the beginning of KH1.

I chewed my lip thoughtfully, again noting that the time on my laptop hadn’t changed the whole time. Something was off about that.

Oh, well. I was probably having a stress dream or something. No matter that I didn’t remember falling asleep.

In the end, I decided to start in Traverse Town during KH1, regardless of the possible implications toward running into Sora or being murdered brutally by Heartless.

 _“Would you like companions?”_ The answer “yes” was swiftly chosen.

 _“Please enter the names of your companions, fictional or real.”_ I noted I was given more than two slots to enter names in, but two of them were in a column by themselves, labelled “Primary Companions.” Against my better judgement, I chose not to enter any names into that column. Not clicking into one of them first led to a small message popping up beside them that said, _“You can change your mind later, and your choice of companion(s) will be assigned as your primary. You will also be able to change this at any time, should you want to.”_

Well that was nice to know.

I typed the names of two characters of mine (Ashlyn Rouse and Jay Evan Bannister) as placeholders for the people they were based on, so as not to chance putting those friends in danger on the off-chance this was real, and then added the name of my boyfriend while imagining him not as himself, but as another character, and then “Adrian” as a placeholder name for another friend of mine.

That done, I clicked “Ok” and waited for the next pop-up.

Still, no time had passed.

 _“Are you sure you want to take this adventure?”_ My only options were “Yes,” and “No.”

I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and, with an air of finality that I didn’t particularly like, clicked “Yes.”

Suddenly I felt very, very sleepy. The pop-up closed after only a moment or two to let me stare at my decision. I sat the laptop aside on instinct, took the glasses off my face, and laid down. When my eyes were drooping closed, I barely caught sight of a new pop-up appearing on the laptop.

 _“Transporting…”_ was all it said.

I didn’t have time to think about it. My eyelids fell closed, and then very much out of nowhere… The feeling of being tired vanished.

My eyes snapped back open, but I was no longer lying safely in my bed. I was upright, standing on what I immediately recognized as a platform in the Dive to the Heart. Like Sora’s, it held a shield, a sword, and a staff on pedestals. As I stepped forward, a voice called in my mind.

 _“Be careful what you choose.”_ It said softly. _“You know it will effect your whole journey.”_

That was very, very true. Whatever I chose here would strongly influence certain aspects of my battling later on. I couldn’t remember _how_ exactly, because it had been a long time since I’d actually played the first Kingdom Hearts, but I knew it was important. Common sense told me that the shield stood for defense, the sword for attack, and the staff for magic, and memory told me picking would ultimately leave me fairly strong in two aspects, and unfortunately lacking in one.

In the end, I decided that, due to my preference for staying out of trouble, picking the shield would be my best bet. From what I remembered, it would give me a nice boost defense wise, and open up some good attack moves too. That done, I had to pick which one to drop. After a bit more consideration, I chose to drop the sword, as I’m typically more of a magic user anyway.

Besides, dropping the staff would leave me with a permanent disadvantage where magic was concerned, and with my preferences in mind that would be very bad.

A stairway appeared, then, leading up to a second platform. On the subject of that, I was never really sure what the platforms are technically called, except that one of them is the Station of Awakening, so for the sake of my sanity I’ll just call them platforms, because that’s what I thought of them as at the time. Though, by the logic of one of them being the Station of Awakening, wouldn’t all of them be stations? And if so, what _of_?

My second platform was a fair bit different from Sora’s, although I was expecting that. What I was not expecting was for it to house a wardrobe, a full length mirror, and a… I think it’s called a vanity? The little counter or table with a mirror mounted to it where ladies do their makeup? Yeah, one of those.

_“This will be, essentially, your only chance to customize your appearance for this adventure. You will receive another come the second. Make full use of it while you can.”_

I took the advice, of course, starting with the wardrobe. Almost immediately I found it to be pretty much endless. One side held shirt after shirt after shirt, and the other held pants, shorts, and skirts in the same amounts. I got to my knees and checked the drawers at the bottom, finding fresh underclothes in one drawer, socks and gloves in another, and various accessories in the third and final drawer. Sitting along the bottom of the main wardrobe were pretty much infinite boxes of shoes.

I sighed - with this much to choose from it would take some work to find something I actually wanted to wear.

After quite some time, I picked out a couple of outfits and tried them in front of the mirror, discarding my plain clothes in a pile on the floor of the wardrobe, where the voice assured me they’d be kept safe until I needed them again.

At this point in time, I think it necessary to point out that I was operating under the assumption that I was dreaming, but I was working my way through it all as logically as I could. After all, there was no way this could be real. I wasn’t _really_ in a Dive to the Heart, trying on clothes for an adventure in the Kingdom Hearts universe. There was simply no way - so why not go along with it until I woke up?

At the end of it all, I chose a crop topped shirt, which I normally wouldn’t have had the confidence to wear. It was black, with a lime green elastic band on the bottom that held it to my midsection so that I wouldn’t accidentally be showing anything off. It had only one sleeve, and it fell to my hand, just above the start of my thumb, on my left arm. After that, I slid on some short shorts (and hoo boy do I mean they were _short_ ), then pulled a skirt on over them that only went about an inch further than them, stopping just above mid-thigh. It was ruffled and it had a cute little bow on the hip, which was honestly a lot of the reason I decided to wear it. The main skirt was black, and the bow, like the band on the shirt, was lime green. The shorts under it, though they hardly matter, were also black.

What can I say? I have a thing for wearing black - I look good in it, and I’m willing to suffer for it. Not to mention, black matches everything.

The only thing that was left to do, then, was finish up the outfit with some socks and shoes and I’d be done with this section. Or at least I thought so at first. Looking through the socks and gloves proved me wrong, however, as I decided maybe my look could use a little more spicing up. As such, I took a lime green knee sock from one pair and a black one from another and pulled them on, then pulled on a pair of black gloves, and dug through the boxes of shoes.

I spared a glance at some flats, some sneakers, and a few different pairs of skate shoes, but all of them were mostly ignored for the time being. Finally I came upon a pair of knee high black boots (thankfully without heels), and gave them a try. Finding them to be pretty comfortable (like all the others likely would have been) and highly functional (where flats likely wouldn’t have been), I chose to wear them.

I very briefly browsed the accessories, nicked a hair clip with Jack Skellington’s face on it in the center of a bow that looked like his tie, and then dropped by the vanity to see what there was to do there. There were a few bottles of nail polish, some eye shadow and eyeliner - the basics of makeup, nothing super complicated. A small stool appeared when I picked up a bottle of nail polish, and I took a seat to do what I needed to do.

Right before I began, something occurred to me.

Being genderfluid, as I am, could lead to the outfit I currently wore potentially being extremely dysphoric for me. It seemed, though, that the strange voice already had a solution to that problem.

_“Finish what you are doing, and you may pick the outfit that suits your other needs.”_

A glance showed the contents of the wardrobe had changed to some decidedly more androgynous or male-aimed shirts, and had removed most of the shorts and all of the skirts from the selection, as per my preference on he/him days.

(A quick detour for those confused - being genderfluid just means that, some days I feel like a girl, some days I feel like a guy, and some days I don’t feel like either or I feel like both. It is also, to my displeasure, a subject of a lot of discourse, and if you don’t like it you can leave. I don’t have time or patience for people who want to argue with me about my gender. That said, under most circumstances I go by she/her pronouns and will allow all others unless I specifically request a certain set, and if you message me or address me directly in a comment any honorific or pronoun is fine. Got all that? Good, now we can move on.)

I did, in fact, go ahead and finish up what I was doing, painting all my nails but the middle ones black, and painting those two bright green to match the rest of the outfit, even if you couldn’t see them. I liked knowing that, should I ever take them off to give somebody the bird, their attention would be drawn to it. Then, once they were dry and I’d applied some minimal eyeliner and a layer of black lipstick, the voice assured me that those touches would only apply when I wanted them to, and that they would never smudge, smear, or wear off. As per video game physics, I suppose.

I got up and went back to the wardrobe, my current outfit disappearing as I did.

My male outfit was considerably less flashy than my female one, but again it was a preference thing. I picked a fairly plain black and green shirt, this time with both sleeves. The left side of the body of the shirt was black, the right side green, and the reverse for the sleeves. Underneath it I put on a binder I had picked from a drawer full of them, though I had to try a fair few before I found a decent comfort/flattening balance. A pretty simple thought brought back the gloves, socks, and boots after I’d grabbed some basic black jeans. Scouring the accessories again found me exactly what I was looking for - a beanie.

It also found me something I hadn’t noticed before, that being other sets of glasses frames. They were all essentially the same as the ones I usually wore, but were different in color and slightly so in style. I tried a set on just to see if they were the right prescription before I discarded my current purple ones on top of my pile of original clothes and put on a pair of black ones.

As an afterthought, I willed the glasses away into my female outfit and hunted around the accessories a bit more until I found a case of contact lenses. I just have a preference for them when I feel male, don’t have a clue why. Maybe my glasses make me feel more feminine or something.

Anyways, I opened the case and found some regular clear contacts within. Good enough for me, I didn’t need to change my eye color. So I put them in, stood there trying not to blink for a little bit, and then blinked _a lot_.

 _“You will not need to change your contacts for as long as you are in this realm.”_ The voice helpfully told me. _“They will never expire.”_

Again, nice to know.

That done, though, I wasn’t sure what to do next. So I just stood there for a minute trying to will my female outfit back, and eventually it worked. Just took some concentration, which is admittedly more work than I would have expected. And more work than I liked. Still, it was easier than actually changing my clothes, and the voice told me that I would only have to concentrate like that if I wasn’t feeling one or the other or felt like both, which I currently really wasn’t. It then amended that statement by saying that any time I wanted to change clothes without a shift in what gender I preferred, I would have to concentrate.

If I felt like a girl and tried to change into the male outfit it would take work, and vice versa, but if I felt like a boy and was wearing the female outfit, it would change on its own. Obviously it worked the same in reverse.

My male outfit chosen and my worries about making myself dysphoric eased, a new staircase appeared, leading up to a third platform. I carefully made my way up, this time sparing a thought for the long, seemingly bottomless drop if I happened to fall off.

On this platform, I found something that confused me at first, but quickly caught onto.

It wasn an armory, and likely where I would choose what I’d be using for my whole adventure. There were many pedestals, each below a floating weapon, and each weapon was different. One was a Keyblade, another a large hammer (I guess you’d call it a warhammer), then a sword, and countless others. Okay, so maybe saying “each weapon was different” was an overstatement - there were multiples of each weapon, but each one looked different and appeared to have a different effect. All except for the Keyblade, which I knew was because keychains would change it on their own.

 _“This step is critical to your adventure.”_ The voice told me calmly, _“Will you become one of the Keyblade’s Chosen? Or will you choose a more mundane path?”_

That was a good question. What _was_ I going to choose here? I wasn’t sure yet, so I wandered around, examining each of the weapons in turn. Hammers weren’t really my thing, so I soon decided against them entirely.

_“A fair choice, to avoid becoming the fierce Warmonger. Brute force will get you few places.”_

That left me with the Keyblade, swords, staves, and the various other weapons, most of them small, that occupied the platform. All of the hammers disappeared completely, along with their pedestals, and everything else moved closer together to occupy the area left behind. I soon decided against swords, as well, because I’m very clumsy and I’d rather not cut myself. I do better with small blades than a huge one that I could easily cut my hand off with.

 _“The life of a swordsman was not for you, I suppose.”_ The voice mused.

I was beginning to think maybe I should just pick the Keyblade - after all, it had the brute strength a hammer would have given, the swiftness of the sword, and the magic channeling of a staff. But it would also bring a great deal of trouble to me.

That made me laugh. All of this would bring me trouble. Might as well be well-balanced if it was going to happen, right?

I grabbed the Keyblade, which currently appeared to be a Kingdom Key. That wasn’t right, I knew, since there were only two Kingdom Keys, and both were taken. One by Sora, the other by Mickey. It was, however, lacking a keychain, I noticed.

 _“That is correct. This is simply the form it will take until you gain your first keychain.”_ A brief pause. _“Speaking of that, however… Here.”_

A keychain appeared on the pedestal the Keyblade had floated over beforehand. It was a simple charm - a short chain with a small item at the end. When I picked it up, I found the item at the end was an old-timey fountain pen. The name came to me while I worked on hooking it to the previously chainless Keyblade in my hand.

_Writer’s Misfortune._

A fitting name for a Keyblade I’d be wielding, I thought.

I put that aside and looked around to see if the next staircase had appeared yet. It hadn’t, so I frowned and stepped away from the pedestal. What else was I meant to do? The pedestal disappeared when I stepped away, and then I sort of understood. I was being given the option to take a secondary weapon, and my options were all of the smaller weapons I’d passed over before.

I willed my Keyblade away for the time being and examined the plethora of daggers, throwing stars, and other tiny secondary weapons. I noted a bow was also one of my options, but I didn’t think I’d need it and passed over it for the time being.

After examining more weapons and rethinking the situation, I doubled back and picked up the bow.

 _“A good choice.”_ The bow seemed to change somehow, appearance morphing to match my Keyblade - which I now realize I neglected to describe. Remind me to get to that. _“You do not need arrows for this bow. Instead, it will operate much the same way your Keyblade does in terms of projectiles - it will shoot beams of light. However, these light arrows are more precise and have a practical use in combat, while the light beam from your Keyblade is only precise when locking or unlocking a Keyhole. Should you need, however, it should do as an attack in a pinch.”_

That was nice to know - and I know I say that a lot about the stuff the voice told me. But that’s just because it _was_ nice, or helpful, or whatever I said about it. I’d have been lost without some of the information it gave me.

There was no staircase this time, but rather a door that opened onto the fourth platform. I know now that the first three platforms were called the Station of Serenity. The one I exited on was part of the the Station of Calling. There was only one other platform.

On my way through the door, I examined my Keyblade, and mentioning that only benefits me by giving me the opening I needed to give myself to describe the weapon. The short version is that it somewhat resembled what might happen if one took Oblivion and Two Become One and smooshed them into one Keyblade. The long version is essentially the same thing, but actually describes the result - it had Oblivion’s base color and teeth (you know, the part of the key that would normally unlock stuff - would that be the ‘blade’ for a Keyblade, or would the section between the handle and the teeth qualify as the blade?), along with its chains, but Two Become One’s handle, with green where Two Become One is white, and its ‘bar’ between the teeth and handle, which to me really looks more like a blade than a bar.

Here I was tasked with performing the major functions I’d need for my adventure: walking, running, and jumping. After I’d proved I could do all of them, although I suppose it was probably just some kind of protocol to make me prove it, a ledge appeared in front of me, and I was given the order to double jump up to it. It took a couple tries, but I did manage to discard enough logic to manage it. I was told to jump down, which I did with great trepidation because while I’m okay with heights, the idea of falling and hitting the ground scares me.

I landed without incident, and was ordered to double jump up again, just to make sure I could do it. Upon completing it in much less time than the first time, I was again told to jump down. This repeated until I did both without more than a couple seconds of hesitation.

_“You will not receive this skill for real for quite some time, but I would like you to practice gliding.”_

At the voice’s insistence, I double jumped back onto the ledge, then jumped off and used my temporary glide ability to the best of my, well, ability. It wasn’t easy to get the hang of, but eventually I did.

All that done, the next staircase appeared and I headed up.

I now finally got some practice with my weapons, which I knew I’d need later on if this dream continued that long. I quickly found out that I’m not exactly great with melee weapons, something that I already had suspicions about due to frequent childhood “sword fights” using sticks with friends. Still, I was effective enough with my weapon to vanquish the Shadows that swarmed me, and then I was introduced to a few flying Heartless way earlier than I should have been in order to use them as target practice.

I had to spend a lot of time working on that, because not only is my aim Not Good™, but I’ve also never used a bow before and needed a lot of work to get used to it. By the time the door to the next Station appeared, I was at least mildly proficient in using the bow, although my aim could still use some work. The voice assured me that I’d get plenty more practice.

I believed it.

I stepped out onto the final platform, or what I somewhat hoped would be the final platform, and looked around.

 _“You know what will happen here.”_ The voice deduced as I walked forward. This would be the final platform after all, it seemed. I checked behind me and watched as my shadow extended. _“The closer you get to the light, the longer your shadow becomes. But you, who is so very close to both the light and the darkness, will be tested in your conviction, rather than set against your own shadow on its own. Are you ready?”_

Even before it finished asking, the Darkside (or was it a Dark Follower that I fought?) formed. And before I had the chance to answer, even sarcastically, it began to attack. Having my bow put me at an advantage that Sora didn’t have, I’ll admit, so I decided to put it to good use… And get some more practice in the process.

Shooting the big guy in the face took a couple of tries, but when managed it brought him crashing down onto the platform, dazed. I quickly rushed over to him and landed as many hits on his head as I could before he got up. When he did so, I very much needed the sudden crash course in the use of dodge roll, though it took some convincing to get me to throw myself onto the ground even if I was doing it to avoid being attacked and I would be able to get back up afterwards due to the fact that it was a _roll_ , not a dive.

Still, I had to do a lot of running and rolling to avoid its hands.

But the Shadows it summoned? Well, lets just say I quickly grew very adept at sending them flying off the platform, perhaps because I have a tendency to use anything I can hold with two hands as a makeshift baseball bat, my weapon of choice back home. Or maybe just because it’s easier to send them flying than it is to pin them down.

Anyway, once I managed to get to a reasonable distance again, I gave brief thought to how troublesome it was to dismiss one weapon to call the other while I was doing so. The it occurred to me that, if they shared a color scheme and overall appearance, maybe I could simply switch between them like Serah switches between her bow and sword in Final Fantasy XIII-2. I resolved to give it a try the next time I had the chance to.

I shot it in the face again with much greater success than the first time. While it was falling, I tried to figure out how I could possibly make my switching idea work, and finally tried just giving my bow a slight twirl around my hand. To my surprise (and eternal delight) it actually _worked_ , and my bow had transformed into Writer’s Misfortune by the time it had made one trip around my hand.

Twirling the other direction brought the bow back.

I’d wasted too much time, however, and now the big guy was up and at ‘em again. Shooting him was _exponentially_ easier this time, and then I was rushing him mid-twirl and wailing on him almost as soon as he hit the ground.

I’m pretty ruthless sometimes, I’ve noticed. Even moreso in places where I can get away with taking my frustration out on things. Obviously that doesn’t fly around here, in the real world, so part of my initial encounter with Shadows was to get me over my deep-rooted reflex to hesitate when I want to hit something until the very last second possible. Usually that makes me miss my opening, allowing me to avoid real fights, but it would only hinder me in this universe.

Luckily, that reflex had temporarily abandoned me by this point, since there’s no point holding back in a dream or against Heartless. Especially not dream Heartless.

So after a couple more repetitions of my little routine, the Darkside (or Dark Follower) did not fall, to my displeasure, but instead finally caught me under its hand, flattening me into an Allie pancake for a minute or so. It _hurt_ , and it brought the realization that, maybe, just maybe, I _wasn’t_ dreaming, and I was in real danger. Predictably, this scared me to _death_ , and before I could get back up I was being swallowed by the darkness.

I didn’t struggle, like Sora and Roxas did. I just laid there and let it happen, because no one would be able to save me anyway, and Sora had woken up just fine.

When I jerked awake suddenly after what seemed like only a couple of seconds, I admit I still expected to find myself in my bed at home, with the morning light streaming in through a crack in my curtains. But that was not where I was, and not even close to the situation I was in. Instead of my bed, I laid on what was presumably someone’s trash, and instead of my room I was in an alleyway in a place I recognized unquestionably as Traverse Town.

I almost screamed, but managed to stop myself as the reality that I was _really_ in Traverse Town, had _really_ become one of the Keyblade’s Chosen, and was _really_ in trouble came crashing down on me. Instead I stumbled off the bag of trash to the other side of the alley and plopped down into a sitting position. I tried to calmly process all of this. I knew panicking wouldn’t help. But I was panicking anyway, and within a minute I was pulling my knees to my chest while I barely avoided hyperventilating.

This was off to a _great_ start, wasn’t it?


	2. Traversing Traverse Town

When I got over my… Well, I don’t want to call it a “panic attack” because really that would be overstating it and also probably inaccurate because I’m pretty sure panic attacks are worse, but on the other hand I also don’t want to call it an “anxiety attack” because I haven’t been diagnosed with anxiety of any kind and anxiety attacks are a legit thing. Hm. Okay, let’s just call it a “brief panic”.

Yeah, that works for me.

When I got over my brief panic, I stood and brushed myself off, looking around. Sure, I was still a little freaked out by the whole situation now that I knew it wasn’t a dream, but I wasn’t letting that stop me. If I was gonna be here, I was damn well gonna make the most of it.

… Even if I was still internally panicking about my real life being irreparably damaged by being here. I did, after all, have a love life, college classes, midterms in said classes, and a story that desperately needed updating within a day, and all of that was understandably important to me.

It was with those thoughts that the voice made the last appearance it would for a very long while.

 _“Time back in your world is paused until you finish this adventure, and it will do the same when you go on your second. When you return, you will wake up in your bed safe and sound on the morning of your 18th birthday. You cannot age in this realm.”_ There was a pause before it said, _“Oh, and by the way, you have a munny pouch in the pocket of your shorts. It will contain enough munny to get you by for the time being, and you will earn more when you kill Heartless, as you know.”_

That was a considerable relief, at least. I wouldn’t be missing anything back home - unless some sleep counted. But I was sure I’d get all I’d need for the journey. Hopefully. Because as much as I happen to be an insomniac and a “short sleeper,” I still need at least two hours to function and not _directly_ be a huge McAsshole while doing it. And I definitely prefer at least four hours since I don’t have such bad anger issues when I’m better rested, for obvious reasons. _And_ , I had money - pardon me, _munny_ \- to spend, meaning I wasn’t completely screwed.

All of that aside, I wandered the deserted streets of the town for some time, just looking around and examining the various closed up buildings. I encountered one or two Shadows and a single Soldier, but the Shadows were swiftly sent flying across the immediate area, dying on impact with the walls they hit. The Soldier took some maneuvering and thinking to get rid of, since it was a little heavier than the Shadows, making my baseball-bat approach somewhat useless.  Maybe one day I’d be strong enough to do the same to them, but that day wasn’t today.

Eventually, I found that just wailing on it like I had the Darkside (Dark Follower?)’s head did the job just as well.

After some time, I stumbled into Cid’s shop.

“Hey there, how can I…” He dropped off, tilting his head to the side. “You’re not from ‘round here.” He guessed, completely changing the dialogue I’d expected of him. Then again, seeing as I was 18 I guess I’m not surprised he didn’t call me a kid.

I shook my head, deciding to play dumb for the time being. “No, I’m not. Can you tell me where I am? I’m a little disoriented.”

“Understandable - this here’s Traverse Town. You’re in the First District right now.” After a brief pause he said, “This is where people come when their world’s destroyed or swallowed by the darkness. That your situation?”

“I guess so.” I shrugged. “Far as I know, I just fell asleep back home and then woke up in an alley a little ways away from here.”

He nodded his understanding. “Not entirely unusual. You must be pretty strong to make it here while your world fell apart, though.”

I felt a little lame, seeing as the only thing I could think to say was, “I guess so,” again. So I didn’t say anything, instead just shrugging. He seemed to get the message and nodded to himself. “You need anything? Looking for anybody?”

I shook my head. “No. Somehow I doubt I’ll need to look for the people I want to find. They’ll find me.” I took a second before saying, “Thanks, anyway. Good to have my bearings back. Anything I should know while I’m here?”

“You’ll wanna stay inside if at all possible. Lotsa Heartless out and about - not fun to get caught by ‘em, either.”

I smiled, taking a leaf from Liam’s book and holding up Author’s Misfortune for him to see. “That’s what this is for, Pops.”

I allowed myself to spend a few seconds watching his astonished expression before I moved on, peeking into the item shop and getting acquainted with Huey, Dewey, and Louie while I was at it. I essentially just wandered the town for a while before settling quietly into a room at the hotel. I told the desk clerk that I didn’t know how long I’d be sticking around, but paid for a few days anyway, and they told me that if I dropped by and saw them before I left, they’d refund the days I didn’t stay.

Awful nice of them, I think.

After I’d settled in, finding a small bag on the end of the bed with a note addressed to me, I plopped down on the bed to read it.

_Allie,_

_This bag will serve as storage for your keychains, potions, and other such items. You will find the pockets each obviously labelled for what you should use them for._

_Also, bear in mind that this adventure will not affect the games themselves, but it can affect the storyline you interact with as greatly or as little as you wish it to. You may forge bonds with whatever characters you wish, taking a front-seat with Sora or working in the background with his friends. You may be a lightbringer, a warrior of justice, or you may become a corrupt being of darkness. It is your story. You will choose how it goes._

_Finally, there is a small notebook within the bag that will allow you to request certain changes you may not be able to bring about on your own, such as appropriate background music or a major story change. I will do my best to make each request possible, if within reason to do so._

I read it over a couple more times, to be sure I understood everything, then examined the bag. Indeed, it had many pockets labelled with what would be found in them, and the final pocket, unlabelled, held a small leather-bound journal and a fountain pen. Glancing back at the note, I decided its first example of a change was something I wanted - appropriate background music.

Specifically, of course, I wanted the in-game background music, including the battle themes for my own convenience. So I jotted it down on the first page, then laid it and the pen aside to let the ink dry, just in case. I was unsure if it would actually happen, but after another half-hour or so of just meandering around the hotel room, I received a shock when the music for Traverse Town kicked in quite suddenly.

It might be pretty laid back music, but when you’re not expecting it to start playing it can be a little on the surprising side.

Soon enough I got used to it and it became exactly the background noise it was meant to be, nothing more. I spent a couple hours outside of the hotel, again, after it came back, taking advantage of the tell-tale battle music to eliminate some more Heartless and expand my repertoire of attacks while I had the chance to just screw around without a bunch of distractions or time constraints.

Once I deemed it to be late enough, I returned to the hotel and headed to bed.

* * *

I spent two more days in that hotel room and out in the streets taking out Heartless. Only the knowledge that no time was passing back home kept this extended stay from bothering me.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed on my fourth day in Traverse Town, sore from the roots of my hair to the soles of my feet from all the exercise I’d done the past three days, I contemplated just staying there and resting.

After stretching a bit and wincing at each and every tense muscle’s ache, I decided against it. I wouldn’t get any better at this, wouldn’t be able to do any more, if I just laid around when I was in pain. Not to mention, if I got here before Sora did, there was a chance that staying in the hotel could make me miss him entirely.

Not exactly a chance I wanted to take, mostly because he, Donald, and Goofy technically had the only feasible way for me to travel between worlds at the moment. Unless I wanted to stoop low enough to side with Maleficent and travel around that way, or try my hand at a Dark Corridor… Without proper protection.

Yeah, I’d just try to find Sora. Even if I’d missed him, he’d come back sooner or later, and then I could maybe hitch a ride from world to world to make my own adventure in the limited wiggle room I had to do so. I couldn’t very well be evil and work with Sora, could I? Not without making everything _way_ too convoluted.

I’m a simple woman. I don’t like to overcomplicate things, for fairly obvious and easy-to-guess reasons.

I paused to stretch out my achey muscles a little more, relishing in the popping of some tight joints. I rubbed at the muscles I could feasibly massage until they loosened up a bit, and then I set out. I made sure I had all of my things and…

… And ran face-first into Leon’s chest and fell flat on my rump.

I spat a curse, mostly at myself for not watching where I was going, and attempted to get back up without hurting myself. Leon offered me a hand after watching me for a moment.

“Sorry.” He grunted once we’d successfully gotten me to my feet.

“It’s my own fault.” I assured him, “So I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have been watching where I was going.” A pause, “Thanks for helping me up though.”

“You look like you’re in pain.” He pointed out.

“I kind of am.” I admitted, “I’ve been doing a lot of fighting the past few days - my body isn’t used to it.”

“So you’re the one who’s been out fighting the Heartless.” He deduced, “People were beginning to wonder. No one was sure who it was - and I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“I’ve only been here for four days… I think. Time is weird here.”

“You come from a world with day and night.” He guessed with a laugh.

I nodded. “Yeah. And anyways, I’m used to at least having a clock to tell me what time it is.”

He just nodded his agreement and understanding. “Well. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”

“Thanks. Same to you.”

We went our separate ways. I found myself astonished at how much friendlier he seemed in person. Maybe it was just because he thought of me as nothing more than a displaced civilian who was trying to do their part, rather than a kid trying to be a hero.

And, you know, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

I shrugged it aside the best I could and trudged back out into the streets of the city, almost immediately running into another person I wasn’t expecting. Thankfully, this time, I skidded to a stop before I _actually_ ran into them, but I still managed to unbalance myself and nearly fall on my butt again.

“Hey, you okay?” Sora stepped closer, holding out a hand to try and help me keep my balance.

“Yes, I’m alright. Just a little wobbly, is all.” I replied, accepting his hand. Despite him being probably three or four years my junior, I felt giddy and excited just seeing him. I managed to push it down, though. I’d known this would happen, eventually. “You lost, kiddo?” I forced myself to ask.

“A little.” Sora admitted with a sheepish grin, though it also looked fairly tired. “I’m looking for Leon? He walks too fast and I was supposed to be following him.”

I tilted my head, mostly for show. “Leon?”

“Uh… Taller than you, long brown hair,” He motioned across his face, “Big scar right here?”

“Oh, him!” I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck. “He’s in there,” I pointed to the hotel behind me, “I ran right into him on my way out of my room.”

That got a laugh out of Sora, who had seemed somewhat nervous before on top of the exhaustion. I offered to try and help him find Leon, which he accepted enthusiastically, and so we headed back into the hotel and up the stairs. I tried to ignore the protests of my legs. To my surprise, Leon was waiting leaned against a door just five feet from mine.

“There you are.” He said to Sora, vaguely annoyed.

Sora gave him a big, nervous grin.

He opened the door and motioned Sora in, and after Sora trudged into the room like a man about to be hanged, I prepared to go about my business. Sure, I’d found Sora, but it’d be a little while yet before he met Donald and Goofy and left, if I remembered correctly. So for the time being I’d just go around doing Sora’s job for him, and then when the time came I’d meddle and get myself involved in his direct business. Maybe throw Donald and Goofy for a loop on purpose.

Speaking of those two, though, I was picking my way back out of the hotel when I passed the two of them and Aerith. I’d seen her around here and there, and we ‘knew’ each other well enough to greet each other in passing. Past that, that was the last of the interaction I’d have for a little while.

Or at least, I figured it would be. Most of my days so far were spent beating up Heartless rather than interacting with people, after all. But midway through a fight with a large throng of Shadows, I remembered I currently had a rather large amount of munny jingling around in my pouch, and I probably needed to invest in some healing items. It hit me, then, that I could probably use a potion to end my issue with being sore, too, and I very nearly smacked myself for my blank-headedness.

Thankfully, I _didn’t_ smack myself, and instead sent a Shadow sailing over the top of its brethren. It hit the side of a building and dissipated without much fanfare.

The others quickly followed it into the void in one way or another, and then I was on my way to the items shop. Huey, Duey, and Louie were decent businessmen, shockingly, and nothing in the shop was too incredibly expensive. I loaded up on potions and ethers despite not yet having any magic. If my memory served me correct, I would be getting my trademark spell come the end of the Traverse Town visit… _If_ I managed to tag along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and _if_ I could get Donald or Goofy to give me Fire.

Yeah, the Fire spell is my trademark. I’m a pyromaniac, both in real life and in video games, but I like to think I control it much better in real life - after all, I don’t go attacking people with fire in the real world, now do I?

Regardless, with my little shopping spree done for the time being, I quickly picked my way across the town to the Third District. I needed to get there before Sora, Donald, and Goofy did if I wanted to be able to meddle. And hoo boy did I want to meddle - not a whole lot, mind, but some. Just enough to _maybe_ be a nuisance to somebody at some point in the timeline. I do, after all, enjoy being a pain in the neck when possible.

I rounded a corner, half-jogging into the appropriate area right as Sora was landed upon by Donald and Goofy. Usually my timing wouldn’t have been near that perfect, so I supposed I’d better thank some kind of higher power for the convenience of it. I paused to do just that before approaching the pile of folks on the ground.

Quite purposely, I kept my Keyblade in hand as I approached, watching in thinly-veiled delight as Donald and Goofy looked frantically between mine and Sora’s. They’d already given their, “The key!” line, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from them now.

What I ended up getting was an even louder, much more confused, “Two?!”

Rather than commenting on it, I gave it a cursory glance, then shrugged. The actions were mostly for show - you know, typical 18 year old trying to be cool. Nothing new there. Then I offered a hand to Donald, who suspiciously took it and allowed me to help him up. I did the same to Goofy, who gave me a winning grin and a, “Thank ya!”

I made to offer my hand to Sora next… Only to be interrupted by the appearance of a couple groups of Heartless.

Sora quickly got to his feet on his own while I accompanied Goofy in taking out some of the approaching Heartless. Donald was getting to work on attempting to take out a couple of the further-off ones.

Once Sora managed to jump into the fray, the four of us made quick work of the remaining Shadows attempting to grief us. And, with that done, Donald and Goofy began to try and talk to Sora and I, though I can’t remember if they do that in the game or not, only to be interrupted once again, this time by the formation of the Guard Armor. I hadn’t been paying attention to the two of them anyway, and it was probably for the best. I almost got turned into an Allie pancake again, which is… Obviously not a fun experience.

My muscles were still yelling at me, since I’d neglected to use a potion to test my hypothesis after I left the item shop, but I didn’t figure I’d really have time to test it out at the moment. The Guard Armor was, after all, focusing in and Sora and I and trying to alternatively stomp us to death or tear us open with its claws.

I found out the hard way that those claws are, indeed, just as sharp as they look. And that it is entirely possible to be thrown sideways into a wall by the force of its slashes. I was upright when it hit me. I managed to end up completely horizontal by the time I impacted the wall.

In the real world, I probably would have lost consciousness, and maybe coughed some blood on the off chance I remained conscious. In the video game world, however, I just struggled back to my feet after a moment of being stunned. The intense muscle soreness combined with the three large, parallel gash on my side made it a bit of an ordeal. Which is totally understandable, because hot _damn_ did it hurt.

I managed to chug a potion before the Guard Armor noticed I was still in commission, and by the time it did I felt more like a million bucks than I had in days. True to what I’d thought, my muscles felt great now. The gashes in my side were healed. My whole body felt lighter and simultaneously a little more dense, if that makes any sense - maybe it’d be better to say I felt lighter but stronger.

I jumped back into the fray with renewed vigor, slashing away at the limbs that got near me and then rolling beneath its torso as I flipped my Keyblade into bow form. I knew I had to work quickly, so when I drew the light arrow back I didn’t do much in the way of aiming. I just put as much power into the shot as I could given the limited time I had and then released. I rolled out of the way before I got to see if my arrow hit its mark, but I figured I’d know if I managed it.

As I expected, I did indeed know when it hit, mostly because it impacted the bottom of the Guard Armor’s head and, curiously, sent it _flying._ Its body appeared vaguely disoriented by that, which gave me a chance to start wailing on the arm that had struck me earlier. When it started fighting back, I flipped my Keyblade back to bow form and gave up a lot of ground to get far enough away to try and shoot it.

My aim… Definitely still needed work.

I missed a lot of shots, but I kept the hand busy regardless. When the head crashed back onto the body about a minute later, I could tell I’d knocked down a bunch of its health, even if I couldn’t see the health bar. Donald was going to town on the other hand, and Goofy and Sora were both focusing on the feet, attempting not to get squashed while they alternated between the two of them.

Not paying attention cost me, and I almost got slashed open again. I barely managed to dodge roll out of the way in time to avoid becoming thinly sliced cabbage. It still caught me, though, giving me some nice scrapes on my side and causing me to drop my bow. Rather than trying to grab it, I got to my feet and bolted toward the other side of the area, summoning my Keyblade back to me when I was far enough away. I tried my “sniping” strategy again, finding my aim was improving quickly under this kind of pressure.

It got in close to me again, and this time I was paying enough attention to block its strike, though doing so made me slide backwards a couple feet. I almost lost my footing before I managed to stage a counter strike, but only almost. I again thanked whatever higher power was looking out for me because usually my balance is pretty bad and I can trip over flat surfaces with no problem. Sure, I’ve got enough grace not to land on my face a lot of the time, and I can hold a cup upright the whole time and not spill anything, but I usually still manage to fall.

I abandoned the thankful prayer very quickly and went back to hammering away at the hand. After a long attempt at a combo, I lashed out a little harder and the hand finally spasmed and disappeared. I paused to catch my breath, looking toward the others to see how they were handling things. Donald was just now taking out the other hand, which was good. Taking out the hands was important.

Sora had taken a bigger job upon himself, now, and was alternating not just between the two feet, but the torso as well, in order to keep it from doing anything, I presume. Goofy was focusing on the feet.

When the other hand fell, Donald and I ran to them and Sora and I started concentrating on the torso while Donald waylaid the feet with his magic. I couldn’t remember if we needed to kill the torso or not, but I figured it was a good idea to try anyway.

Sora ended up getting dropped soon enough, though, which made me wince. He struggled back to his feet a little ways away from me, and I broke off my attack chain to run over and hand him a potion. He accepted it with obvious gratitude. I kept myself protectively in front of him while he drank it, choosing to shoot at the feet for the time being.

It occurred to me suddenly, while doing that, that I shouldn’t yet actually _have_ the Dodge Roll ability. I let myself be befuddled by it, but chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth - so what if I got it a little early? It had served me well, and I was unsure how I’d actually learn dodge roll from two people who never used it anyway.

At least I was _pretty sure_ I wasn’t supposed to have it yet, and I was supposed to get it from Donald and Goofy at the end of this world. I wasn’t sure. Maybe my stuff was just out of order because I wasn’t part of the main story?

I shook the thoughts away, cast a glance over my shoulder at Sora, who gave me a thumbs up, and then flung myself back into the fray. I fired off all the shots I could while approaching the torso and feet again, then flipped back to Keyblade mode and joined Donald and Goofy in savagely attacking the feet. After a moment or two, Sora did the same.

The one Donald and Sora settled on beating up together fell first, spurred on by the magic Donald was throwing at it. With their help, mine and Goofy’s fell soon after. Then we all turned on the torso and head. I hopped back a little bit and knelt, flipping back to bow form. I was going to work on my aim some more, since I had the chance, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy being in the way while the target was moving just meant I had to try harder.

I managed not to hit any of them in my endeavors, but I also ended up not taking very many shots. My help wasn’t very effective, if I’m being honest here, and I do try to be.

Still, within a few minutes, the Guard Armor fell without ever managing to do its little laser number because of how busy four people kept it. Honestly I’m really thankful for that. I’m not sure how well I’d hold up to a literal laser attack.

For the first minute or so of the aftermath, we all attempted to catch our breath. I dismissed my keyblade and stretched, enjoying being able to move without pain - hey, I didn’t really get a chance to do it during the fight. I was busy trying to murder the big guy before he turned me into thinly sliced cabbage, remember?

“So you were looking for me?” Sora asked, tilting his head and pointing at himself, almost exactly like in game. I don’t think he tilts his head in game, though.

Goofy and Donald, of course, nodded, as per the railroad tracks they and Sora would be running on for the whole adventure.

“They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade.” Leon spoke up, and I found myself questioning when and how the hell he got there. And if he’d seen my Keyblade as well. Yuffie nodded along, but then Leon deviated from his usual actions by continuing instead of stopping there. “Although I don’t think any of us were aware that there was more than one.”

All eyes were suddenly on me, causing me to give all those present a sheepish grin and a wave.

Sora grinned right back at me, though much more enthusiastically. “I definitely didn’t know - but her Keyblade’s _way_ cooler than mine! It can turn into a bow! How do you do that?”

“I honestly have no idea. I didn’t even know I had one until like three days ago.” I shrugged.

“When you showed up here,” Leon guessed, “I suppose that makes sense. Some worlds wouldn’t give you the chance to even find out about them, let alone use them.”

“Mine sure as sh…” I trailed, not sure if I wanted to curse in front of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and tried again, “Mine sure as heck didn’t.”

Leon raised a brow for a second, then looked toward those three and lowered it, nodding to himself.

“Well,” Goofy said, finally popping us back onto the railroads, “Why don’t you two come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel!”

Sora looked down, murmuring, “I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…”

“Of course.” Donald said, and he’s actually way more genuine-sounding in the game than he was in person.

Sora’s head snapped up, and I shared an incredulous look with Leon. Goofy and Donald had their usual short, whispered exchange in the background while Leon stepped up. “Sora, go with them.” He said, completely ignoring me. Maybe he figured I was a strong, independent woman who could make my own decisions? “Especially if you want to find your friends.”

Sora had dropped his head again, looking quite dejected. “I guess.” He said.

“But you can’t come along looking like that. Understand?” Donald asked, “No frowning. No sad face. Okay?”

I found that, curiously, in person, I wanted to punt him for that line. In the game it never really bothered me past him being kind of a dick for not letting Sora mope. In person it filled me with some sort of all-consuming intense irritation. I guess it was probably my mothering instinct kicking in.

“Yeah, you gotta look funny, like us!” Goofy added.

Donald shoved him aside. I wanted to punt him even worse. “This boat runs on happy faces.”

“Happy?” Sora questioned, not looking up.

I shared another look with Leon, then looked at Donald and Goofy to see them waiting excitedly for what he’d do. I was fully prepared, of course, but his doofy little face when he lifted his head still made me snort and put my hand over my mouth. Donald and Goofy began to laugh.

“That’s one funny face!” Goofy assured him.

Ignoring him, apparently, Sora stood up straighter and said, “Okay, why not? I’ll go with you guys.”

Donald and Goofy introduced themselves to him, and he did the same in turn, and they did the dumb putting their hands together and quoting the Three Musketeers thing. Then all of them turned to me expectantly. Oh, so _now_ I was important again? That was nice.

“Allie.” I said, “Nice to meet y’all. But if you’re expecting me to join in on that I’m afraid I have to decline. There’s only three musketeers, after all.”

Goofy seemed pleased that I got it. “Nah, you aint gotta join the musketeers. But we’d like it if ya joined us and Sora in our travels!”

“Yeah.” Donald agreed, though I wasn’t so sure he wanted to deal with me.

Sora seemed to really want me to go along, though. That was kinda cute. I got the feeling, at the time, that he might be somewhat idolizing me for being older and better at the Keyblade thing, even though he was arguably much more powerful than I was already.

I caved, though I hadn’t really been deeply considering not agreeing. I just wanted it to seem like I was. “Alright, I’ll go. I have some people I need to find along the way, too.”

Around this time, I believe the cutscene where the villains are plotting against us plays. Obviously, I didn’t get to see that, and instead accompanied the group back to the First District.

The usual exchange happened there, following the script exactly, so I won’t get into it. When the usual scene ended, Sora asked if I was going to go with him and the others to shop, but I shook my head and informed him that I’d already bought what I needed.

“You sure? We’re going to other worlds, after all.” He grinned.

I smiled back. “I’m fairly sure - if nothing else I’ve got plenty of potions, which should see me through until I find something else I need.”

He accepted that answer and went off to shop with everyone’s favorite dog and duck.

Well, unless you’re a fan of Duck Hunter, because then those two might be your favorite dog and duck. I digress.

Once they finished, Donald and Goofy pointed out the doors to exit the world, yadda yadda yadda, and then suddenly… I knew how to cast Fire. I don’t know _how_ that happened. They didn’t explain it, that’s for sure. They didn’t even say anything after Donald’s, “Hey, this is for you guys.” I just suddenly had the knowledge, and that… Perturbed me.

I chalked it up under “video game logic” and left it at that.

I took note of Jiminy standing behind them, a couple feet away, but decided not to bother him. It was probably for the best that I didn’t meddle where he was concerned. I’m sure, somehow, that he appreciated me leaving him alone, regardless of my reasonings.

And thus we set off onto the Gummi Ship and I decided to relax while I had the chance. Sure, there were only three chairs, but I was in no way averse to plopping my ass right down on the floor and sitting there for as long as I needed to - save for if we had to do any flips or shit like that. Then I’d be at least grabbing onto one of the seats.

“You sure you don’t want the chair?” Sora asked, almost seeming worried.

“I’ll be fine.” I waved a hand. “You take it.”

Donald and Goofy shared a look, then mumbled between themselves for a moment before nodding. I didn’t bother asking what they were talking about, I just got as settled in as I could and crossed my legs, to their horror. Only when they noticed that I was wearing shorts and the skirt covered the important stuff anyway did they look any less mortified.

It was once we’d set off that I pulled the book from my little bag, having decided on something else I’d like to have - HP bars that only I could see, both for myself and for my friends and foes. It would, after all, help me in the long run. I also requested an MP bar for myself. Then, for the heck of it, I also asked that I be able to see what level we were all at.

About halfway through the journey, I saw my requests pop into existence, but only when I focused on anyone. Focusing on Sora showed he was a mere Level 2, with full health. Donald was a Level 9, also with full health, and Goofy was a Level 8 with a small chunk out of his health bar. I considered offering him a potion, but I figured he’d ask someone if he thought it was serious.

I looked myself over, but found I couldn’t see my own stuff, which started to irritate me. Finally, I had an epiphany and lifted one of my hands, palm up. Above it sat exactly what I wanted to see, and I felt a bit dense for not trying that first.

As it turned out, I was Level 4, with a miniscule chunk of health missing and full MP.

Neat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, some notes:  
> \- Yes, I realize making myself higher level than Sora makes me more powerful than him. My reasoning is a) I'd been at it longer than him, and b) I'd killed way more Heartless at that point. Also, this conundrum will eventually be solved either due to him fighting more or him simply being better at it than I am, turning him back into the most powerful after he surpasses Donald and Goofy as well.  
> \- No, I'm not going to ship myself with Sora, even if he does look up to me at this point in the story and I'm excited to be around him. First of all, I never really liked Sora in that way, and second, despite it only being a four year age difference, I'm _not_ shipping my literally 18 year old self with a canonically 14 year old boy.


	3. Nonsense Speakers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bear with me on any errors in this chapter, please. It was a little rushed and smooshed in between writing a paper for my Composition and Analysis class and another one for my Counseling class.  
> If you notice anything that sticks out very badly, or any major plot holes that I missed while rereading today, please feel free to tell me though.

I really wasn’t particularly surprised when Donald and Goofy chose to make the trek to Wonderland first. After all, it was a lower level world, and there were lots of low level Heartless to knock off the face of the world for the experience. It was a great place for Sora and I to level up before we went up against Saber in Deep Jungle or any of the Coliseum Games.

And speaking of both of those places, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to either of them because, to be quite frank, I hate heights and I’d never before gone up against someone in one on one combat with a real weapon. Every time I’d ever fought before it was a fistfight and I already wasn’t exactly great at that. I mean, sure, I could land a couple good hits if I ignored my ingrained instinct to hesitate, but I was by no means a champion fighter. I was like… Barely a fighter in the first place. I had enough guts and experience to at least put up a fight, but winning was a long shot unless I was the more experienced one in the fight. Play swordfights notwithstanding from all this, of course.

I shook the thoughts from my head and put the book back in my little bag, which I had strapped to my hip, although I don’t think I mentioned that before. Not really important, of course, at least not at the moment, but I’m having a hard time focusing on important stuff today.

Once we landed, I shuffled on off the ship with the others. The usual White Rabbit cutscene followed, prompting the four of us to take off after him - the other three a little bit more enthusiastically than myself. Sure, they weren’t exactly  _ running _ to catch up with him or anything (okay, so Sora was), but they were still more interested than me. I kept up the best I could with them, but mostly looked around and checked out the odd scenery rather than paying a whole lot of attention to where we were going.

Upon entering the Bizarre Room and watching the White Rabbit go through the door, I started paying more attention.

Sora spoke to the door, causing the table to pop up, and pretty much immediately he went to drink from the blue bottle. He didn’t manage at first, and there were a few Heartless to take care of first, but whatever.

When he did get to drink from the bottle, Donald, Goofy, and I did not shrink down with him, but those two were quick to follow his example and drink, leaving me to take the now enormous bottle from them. I told them I’d wait until they managed to get the door open before shrinking, though I knew they wouldn’t manage.

I just wanted to save time by pushing the bed aside on my own when they figured it out, honestly.

“Aw, man, we have to find another way!” Sora cried.

I muffled a chuckle behind my hand and sat the bottle on the table, then moved over to the bed. I managed, somehow, to shove it into the wall without assistance, revealing the other entrance to the world proper. Sora thanked me, and the three of them rushed in without much hesitation.

I took my time drinking from the bottle, but was quick to plop it back onto the table before I shrunk down all the way.

Without further ado, I darted through the entrance to catch up with the others. Thankfully, I’d managed to avoid missing the trial cutscene. I’m sure you can guess what happened there, as I chose not to meddle for the time being and the events therefore followed their usual script. In fact, I chose not to speak at all, and instead hung back while Sora made a mess.

I ended up doing that a lot, which probably says something about me if we’re being honest.

Upon the issuing of the mission of going off to find evidence, I finally spoke up. “Hey, wouldn’t this go quicker if we split up?”

The others seemed to consider it. Finally, Donald and Goofy nodded.

“Yeah,” Donald said, “That would be quicker.”

“You could take Sora with ya!” Goofy suggested, “Teach him a little of what you know about fightin’ with the Keyblade!”

“Sounds fine to me.” I shrugged, then looked at Sora, “You okay with that plan?”

“Sure.” Sora grinned. “Sounds fun!”

I valiantly resisted the urge to squeal because  _ damn _ this child was too cute. It was official - he was my  _ son _ now, no ifs ands or buts about it. I was adopting him… If only for the course of the adventure, but still.

So Donald and Goofy took off in one direction while Sora and I headed in another.

Upon entering the forest we were, predictably, met by the Cheshire Cat. I’m fairly certain that what he said is _ not _ exactly what he says in the game, but the encounter went something like this.

First, of course, with him popping up in the strangest way he could imagine, I’m sure, bouncing around and then appearing in full, standing on his head. Since Donald wasn’t with us, the usual startled and perhaps irritated “who are you?!” wasn’t delivered. Instead, I said, “Hello, Cheshire.”

“Hello, hello.” He replied, with that usual grin, “Or is it goodbye? For Alice it may be.”

“Poor Alice,” I replied, my brain plucking his usual line out of thin air. “Soon to lose her head, and she’s not guilty of a thing.”

“Not at all.” He agreed, “Nothing gold can stay, you know. So maybe it’s fate!”

“Maybe.” I hummed, and I had to suppress a laugh when I saw how utterly lost Sora looked. “I don’t suppose you know who  _ is _ guilty, though, do you dear Cheshire?”

“The Cheshire Cat has all the answers - but doesn’t always tell.” He informed me with a twinkle in his eye. “The answer, the culprit, the cat all lie in darkness. I’m certain you know who’s to blame, and where to find the evidence.”

And with that he was gone, and Sora and I had to start on the mission proper. Shockingly, Sora had no questions about the exchange, seemingly trusting my judgement enough to go with it. Or maybe he just thought that I’d tell him if I thought it was important. Who knows? Not me.

Anyways, since I was always kind of crap at the evidence mission, we got lost a couple of times, and had plenty of run-ins with Heartless. Sora seemed to be quite amused by the way I switched between using my Keyblade as a baseball bat, a golf club, and an actual blade when he managed to watch me fight.

“You’ve never used a sword before, have you?” He asked between mobs.

“I used to swordfight my friends with sticks.” I shrugged, “But it’s not quite the same, you know?”

He nodded. “I had a toy sword, back on the island. My buddy Riku and I…” He trailed, looking somewhere between deflated and  worried.

I put a hand on his shoulder, “He’s one of the people you’re looking for, isn’t he?”

He nodded, “Yeah. I’m… Really worried about him.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

I gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “It’ll all work out in the end, I’m sure.”

“Yeah.” He agreed, brightening once more. “So is there anything you can actually teach me about the Keyblade?”

“Well.” I glanced at mine. “It can do this.” I said, raising it and pointing in a mostly innocuous direction before firing off a beam of light. “It’s supposed to lock things? Like the Keyholes of worlds or something? I dunno. I had a weird dream.”

“You always believe your dreams?” He asked, tilting his head.

“Realistic ones, yeah. And that one seemed realistic.”

He nodded again, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I’ve had some weird dreams that ended up being important to me later on. Like this one time I had a dream about getting hit in the face with a ball at school? And the next day we played dodgeball and the situation played out exactly the same except I ducked and didn’t get hit cuz I knew what was coming.”

I smiled. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it before, but I really enjoy listening to other people talk. Like… Way,  _ way _ more than I enjoy talking, myself. And, don’t get me wrong, I’ll talk your ear off given the opportunity, but I love to listen to someone else do all the talking. Especially if they’re excited about something.

“Anyways that light beam thing is really cool.” He grinned. “How do I do that?”

“I kinda just imagine it happening, to be entirely honest.” I admitted, shrugging.

He hummed and pointed his Keyblade in the same direction I had. After a second or two, he managed to fire off one of the beams, causing him to laugh giddily. Yep - definitely adopting him. Definitely taking him in as my son. He was too perfect, too precious, too good for this world. And every other world.

It was difficult to avoid splitting my face with a grin at his laughter, but I managed, and I also managed not to squeal at all. I could contain myself. I was a responsible adult.

Kind of.

Okay, so we all know I wasn’t, but I was trying, dammit.

Anyway, the two of us eventually managed to come across one of the pieces of evidence - the footprints. Considering they were just hiding next to a flower, they weren’t too hard to recover.

“... But how do we collect  _ footprints?” _ Sora asked, perplexed, as they’d disappeared when I touched them. Somehow I knew I’d picked them up, though.

“No clue. Just… Don’t think about it too much.” I advised, doing my best to follow my own advice. I didn’t need to give myself a headache - I wouldn’t be any help that way.

Sora made a noise, nodding.

We moved on. I practiced actually using the Keyblade as a sword, and Sora took up swinging his like a golf club at the Shadows we encountered when possible. He seemed to get quite a kick out of sending them flying like that - and who could blame him? It’s fun to fling the little buggers across an area when possible.

The bigger Heartless we tended to team up on, I noticed, even if we weren’t doing it on purpose. And I also noticed that Sora seemed to be developing quite the vendetta against Large Body Heartless, their shockwaves especially. Not that I blame him - I have a healthy hatred for them as well.

Whilst fighting some smaller ones, Fire saw its first use as I tried to get the hang of literally being able to fling fire from my fingertips or the end of my Keyblade. Sora quickly caught on and tried it as well.

We cleared out the lot of them with the spell, though Sora seemed to be itching to get back to using brute force instead. I wasn’t surprised. He didn’t seem like much of a magic-user.

When I mentioned as much, he laughed sheepishly.

“Yeah, no. I’m just really not used to it - it’s cool and all but I prefer what I’m used to.” He paused, “As in like. Melee weapons. The Keyblade is still weird to me.”

“That’s fair.” I sympathized. “I understand completely - and while one of my teachers back home would be actively encouraging you to leave your comfort zone, I suggest taking your time doing that.”

He regarded me quietly for a moment before saying, “... Thank you.”

“Not a problem.” I shot him a smile, “You feel up to looking for more evidence now?”

He nodded eagerly, and off we went.

We eventually came upon the Antenna, though I admit readily that Sora was the one who jumped up and found it. It was a little higher off the ground than I was willing to go just yet. If Sora noticed my hesitance when it came to heights, he said nothing, and for that I was infinitely thankful.

We inevitably went back to where we’d started, and were soon met by Donald and Goofy, who had found the other two pieces of evidence. Suddenly, I knew how to cast Blizzard, and it took me a long, long moment to remember that that’s kind of what happens in game if you get all four pieces of evidence.

I left Sora and the others to the evidence picking and wandered off, to the Queen’s obvious chagrin. Curiously, she did not try to order me to come back, perhaps because I had, so far, not been much of a presence altogether. So what if someone who seemed harmless went off on her own, after all?

I wandered on back to the Bizarre Room instead of even staying in the others’ general vicinity. I’m still not sure if it was a good or bad idea to do so, actually, for one reason in particular that, surprisingly, is not the card battle. Believe it or not I made it back in time for that…

But while I was in the Bizarre Room, something unexpected happened, which I suppose I probably should have expected given the nature of Wonderland. Always making one second-guess oneself.

Okay, I’ve let you wonder long enough already - what happened is, while I was in there, I had my first encounter with Riku.

Now, I know for a fact that I was not supposed to see him until Monstro or something, but there he was anyway. Kind of just standing there. Shrunken down, shockingly enough, and seemingly just interested in staring around the room and occasionally batting a Heartless away when some would spawn.

I stood there watching for a long moment before confidently striding from the shadows in our little hidden doorway between the room and the Queen’s Court.

I say I did so  “confidently” not because I actually  _ felt _ confident in any capacity, but rather because I managed through many years of practice to give off the impression that I was. It’s as simple as making sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes, squaring your shoulders, setting your jaw, and walking like you’re on a mission. And if you want to go for “leave me alone” you walk like you’ve been sent to kill Captain America with nothing but your bare hands and a sharp rock but you’re more than confident you can manage it.

Anyway.

Almost immediately he caught sight of me, and his brows furrowed.

“Who’re you?”

“Allie.” I shrugged, coming to a halt a couple of feet away. “And you?”

“Riku.” He said after a tense moment. “What are you doing here?”

“I hardly think that’s your business.” I replied coolly. Not openly hostile with him, just calm and vaguely passive aggressive. He hadn’t done anything wrong  _ yet _ and honestly I’m fond enough of him to leave his later acts alone, especially for diplomacy’s sake.

“The hell it isn’t!” He straightened his back immediately, an unusual display of anger rising up. “I saw you walk in there with Sora and now you walk back out without him? What are you playing at?!”

I dutifully ignored the curse, figuring that it was mostly due to my own presence in the world. After all, with me around this was hardly a children’s game anymore. It essentially couldn’t be - not with my foul mouth and temper. Not that I couldn’t manage to be child friendly if I tried, of course, but I’d have to take frequent breaks to scream.

“Sora’s fine. He has two other people to look after him while I’m not doing it.” I told him flippantly. “And I’m not playing at anything, kid.” God, it felt good to be able to call people that and not just do it ironically. It felt good to do it genuinely and out of spite instead. “I’d suggest you take your wild assumptions and kindly shove them somewhere you might find at least remotely unpleasant.”

He looked like he was seething, even moreso now that I’d responded to outright anger with the most calm and passive aggressive-but-bordering-on-outright-aggressive response I could come up with for the moment. I don’t think he likes being sassed.

Which is fair.

“You…” He trailed and didn’t say any more, just glared at me.

I couldn’t help feeling a little smug - I always do on the rare occasion that I leave someone speechless. The fact that he was speechless from  _ anger _ was not lost on me, though. I knew I’d probably just made an enemy for myself. To be honest, though, that was fine, because I really hadn’t expected otherwise. That was the kind of person Riku was in the first game.

I moved away from him, curiosity far from satisfied, but ready to move on with my adventuring. I took a moment to look around a little, sniped some Heartless that I normally would have fought up close. As long as Riku was around, I wasn’t going to take my chances with him knowing I had a Keyblade.

I mean, sure, I wouldn’t mind changing things here and there, but him knowing it was possible for more than one person to have a Keyblade would be… Messy. It was entirely possible that it’d change way too much. And, understandably, that was not something I wanted to deal with.

I also took the opportunity to make sure that I could also use Fire with the bow. Thankfully, I could. It made the light arrow turn into a fiery one between my fingers, which freaked me out so bad the first time that I dropped it. I realized only after it had fizzled out of existence that it hadn’t burned me, which embarrassed me somewhat.

Riku didn’t appear to be paying attention to me, though, which was a blessing.

My incompetence wasn’t something I needed blasted at me every time I came into contact with him, you know.

The Heartless taken care of (with no help from Mopey McPre-Emo), I gave in and went back through the hole in the wall to Wonderland. My timing was again unrealistically perfect, so I shot another ‘thank you’ to whoever might be responsible.

And by “unrealistically perfect,” I mean that I arrived on the scene right as Sora picked the evidence box that would either doom Alice or save her (to his knowledge). There was a tense second of silence before the Queen yelled something about not believing the evidence and ordering all their heads be lobbed off.

“Don’t let them touch that tower!”

Around that time I jumped into the fray, choosing to make a nuisance of myself rather than standing idly by. Solely for the purpose of being mysterious and keeping the fact that more than one person could have a Keyblade a secret, I stuck to my bow and casting Fire from my hand for the majority of the fight.

Understandably, the card soldiers did not enjoy being set fire to. Obviously, however, I did not care and continued to do so.

Blah blah, fighting, attacking a tower, blah. You know what happens here and my presence didn’t do anything except make it go a little faster. And even that’s somewhat questionable given the nature of the fight - it’s designed to take a little bit (though not outrageously long) and make you work.

With that over and done with, my mind blanked on what exactly we were supposed to do, so I went off on my own again. I knew we were supposed to be looking for Alice, but past that I couldn’t remember. I knew there was a Cheshire Cat encounter in there somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where or when. Or if there happened to be more than one meeting with him.

I thought there was, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

Going off on my own, however, was dumb, as I’m sure you’d already guessed.

I ended up getting lost not once, not twice, not even  _ three _ times, but  _ eight. Separate. Times. _

I don’t know how I got half the places I did, and I don’t remember when I ended up where, but I know that I did not manage to get where I meant to go. I stumbled out of the hole in the wall meant to take me to the Bizarre Room and found myself in the middle of the Lotus Forest. I made my way to one of the exits that led to the Bizarre Room, and ended up back in the Queen’s Court.

It took me all eight times to realize that I had, in fact, merely gotten so paranoid I’d go the wrong way that I’d managed to get the order of when and where I ended up mixed up. Which, obviously, led me to believe I was going through the right door and ending up in the wrong area. Definitely one of the worse things my brain has done to me, if I’m being entirely honest, but not the worst.

I’m easily mixed up when I’m stressed.

Eventually I managed to wander my way back into the Bizarre Room without getting lost or mixed up again, at which point I encountered Sora and the others, who gave me a quick rundown of what they’d seen and found. I delicately explained that I hadn’t found anything, and didn’t go into the part where I’d somehow stressed myself to the point of thinking I was managing to go through the entrance to an area and end up in another area. I doubted they’d understand, just like I kind of doubt you guys understand.

Before we got a whole lot more talking done, the Cheshire Cat appeared. He gave what I assume was his usual spiel, mostly because I didn’t interfere this time and all the necessary people were there. And then, surprise surprise, came the Trickmaster.

Again, I won’t go into a whole lot of detail on how we dealt with it. For the most part it was the exact same fight you’d normally have, just with one extra team member to speed everything along. Like the last fight, I stayed back and shot at it from a distance, attempting to light it on fire against my better judgement. I knew that it was a bad idea, of course, because using Fire on the Trickmaster lights its batons on fire and gives it an attack advantage, but using Fire on it from all the way across the room made it focus harder on trying to get to the small annoying thing continually pricking it with what were basically light needles than it was focusing on the others. This gave the others the advantage, allowing Sora to rain merry hell upon its head, and after a bit I switched to using Blizzard on it instead of Fire.

What can I say? I prefer Fire anyway, but I forgot that I even  _ had _ Blizzard at my disposal until about halfway through the fight.

The Trickmaster’s HP was whittled away fairly quickly, all things considered, but not near quick enough, as far as I’m concerned. It occurred to me near the end of the fight that I was starting to get a little testy about things that didn’t matter, which confused me for a moment. Surely I hadn’t been interacting with my new companions so much that I was already getting emotionally exhausted.

Or maybe I had. Who knew? Not me. All I knew for sure was that the Trickmaster was somehow getting on my nerves without even doing anything irritating, and it needed to get out of the way. Maybe I just needed a nap...

I closed in for the very last bit of the fight, and Sora and I landed the final blows together - him with a nice Keyblade to the face, and me with a good ol’ fireball to the chest.

My memory gets frustratingly foggy in this area, but to my knowledge the next few minutes just consisted of a vague discussion about Keyholes, Sora asking if I wanted to lock Wonderland’s, and me telling him he could do it if he wanted. I remember, somewhat, the huge grin on his face when he turned to do exactly that.

Yes, before you ask, my memory  _ does _ do that at other points in this story. Yes, it does it regardless of how interested I am in what’s going on. And, yes, I knew it was an issue long before this story.

Anyways. My memory clears back up a bit once we’re already on board the Gummi Ship. I was already sitting down, as were the others, and Goofy mentioned something about us having spent a while there in Wonderland.

“How long’s ‘a while’?” Sora asked, tilting his head. His eye contact with the other was broken by him squeezing his eyes shut while he yawned.

“Almost all night,” Goofy informed him. “You two should get some rest!”

“No arguments here.” I supplied immediately, stifling a yawn of my own.

I blinked blearily at them while they informed us of a couple blankets we could use, and only after being hit with one of them did I focus back in. And by that I mean I managed to do what I’d originally intended - saw their current stats.

Donald and Goofy were at full health, and both were level 17. That vaguely disturbed me - how had they leveled up so fast? Sora, meanwhile, was missing a small chunk of health and had managed to reach level 13. Almost immediately the feeling of “how the hell did he do that” made a very intense comeback, and suddenly I was almost scared to look at my own stats.

When I did, I found myself to be level 14 with full health.

Gods almighty, levelling sure happened quick in comparison to how I’d gained my first four levels… I guessed maybe it was just because the Heartless were a little higher level in Wonderland than in Traverse Town, at the current point. And I mean, I  _ did _ say Wonderland would be good for some EXP grinding due to the sheer amount of lower level Heartless.

I decided not to resist the urge to request some other things from the mysterious voice.

This time I politely asked for a notification of when anyone on the team leveled up, despite the fact that I don’t  _ think _ that was a thing in the game. To my surprise, the immediate response to this request was a line of text that somehow contrived to come off as sarcastic.

_ I suppose next you’ll be asking for Skill Points for leveling. _

_ ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ _ I wrote,  _ ‘That would make things way too easy in this game.’ _

I got the feeling I was being laughed at, and that was the end of that as I sat the little journal aside and settled down to fall asleep.


	4. Sabertooth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally actually had the time to finish up this chapter _and_ the next one, so I felt safe putting this one up. Enjoy!
> 
> Also, me? Going back and rereading the story that kinda/sorta inspired this because I kept thinking about it? It's more likely than you think.

Before we get started here, I just realized that I forgot to mention something while I was talking about Wonderland.

During my littler run-around getting “lost” on my own, I found a chest in the Lotus Forest, which contained a new Keychain. I didn’t spend much time looking at it at the time, but when I woke up on the Gummi Ship I decided to check it out. All I knew from prior experience was that it was named Dragonwrath.

Closer inspection “showed” me that its extra effects were raising my attack and MP by one and decreasing MP cost for “fire related magic,” which struck me as most likely meaning that Fire, Fira, and Firaga’s costs would have decreased, since those were the only ones I could really learn. Unless I got some other kind of fire magic along the way, which I doubted was likely.

I was quick to equip it, and the keychain for Writer’s Misfortune merely disappeared when I took it off, the blade itself retaining its appearance right up until I put the Dragonwrath keychain on.

After that I did what can best be described as “thinking about stuff” because I don’t remember what I thought about or for how long, but I know I got absorbed enough in my own head that I didn’t notice we were about to crash until about thirty seconds before impact, when Sora jerked the controls hard enough that he made us perform an unscheduled barrel roll that briefly introduced me to the ceiling. I had the presence of mind to scramble across the floor for the journal when I landed, and as I tucked it into my bag…

We promptly crashed, scattering us.

Sora presumably landed in the treehouse, and Donald and Goofy went wherever they usually end up before they’re found at the camp, and I… Don’t really know where I ended up? As in I don’t know the name of the place, if it even exists on the map at all. I just know it was somewhere in the middle of the jungle, which really doesn’t narrow it down any.

Regardless, as you’ve no doubt already picked up on my bad sense of direction, I’m certain you can imagine that this kinda… Sucked. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know where I was headed, and I didn’t know how to get literally anywhere from my current point.

So I didn’t. Go anywhere, that is.

I sat my happy ass down on the ground and I waited.

My peaceful seating was only disturbed twice, both times by groups of Heartless. The first group was a large group of Shadows, which were, despite the higher level, pretty easy to dispatch. The second group was a similarly sized group of… Oh. Great. White Mushrooms, Wyverns, Wizards, and Shadows.

Three of these Heartless weren’t so hard to take out, but the other kicked my ass. And, thereafter,  _ continued _ kicking my ass until I squashed my fear of heights under my heel for the time being and used a couple of the surrounding trees to launch myself at them whilst swinging my Keyblade around like a madwoman.

If you guessed it was the Wyverns, you would be right.

If you also guessed that I temporarily forgot I had the bow form of Dragonwrath, you would also be correct, but the one or two attempts I ended up making with it were… Well, they didn’t turn out great. Because my aim could  _ definitely _ still use some work, and they were quite adept at moving out of the way of the bright, shiny thing coming at them if they noticed I was taking aim at them.

Once the remainder of them bit the dust, I decided to simply take up residence in one of the trees for the time being and snipe any further enemies with my bow from up there. It was obviously a younger tree than the rest, though, because it was the only one with branches I could reach.

They were still a ways up the tree, though, don’t get me wrong. They were just way closer to the ground than any of the others. I had to double jump and then perform my best attempt at a wall-run for about three steps before I could grab the lowest branch. Understandably, the first couple of times that didn’t really work out for me. The first time I couldn’t get traction on the tree for whatever reason, and that landed me back on the ground in a hurry. As you don’t take fall damage in Kingdom Hearts, a lot of my usual fears were unfounded there, but if you don’t think I had to spend the next five minutes hyperventilating because “holy shit I almost  _ died,” _ you are very wrong.

The second and third attempts ended very much the same way, because I couldn’t get the third step in and grab the branch quick enough to avoid gravity pulling me back down to the ground. And by saying they ended very much the same way, yes, I do mean that I had to sit there for a few minutes internally screaming.

The fourth time, I caught hold of the branch in time, and through sheer luck and momentum, managed to swing myself up onto it, and after that climbing to a sturdier branch wasn’t hard at all.

The real kicker? It was all in vain, because the next thing to come through my little area was none other than Sora, Goofy, and Tarzan.

“She should be here somewhere.” Sora was saying, “I just don’t know where.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say he sounded worried. But regardless, my only response to that was to relocate to the lowest branch, brace for a landing I knew  _ wouldn’t _ hurt, but couldn’t avoid thinking  _ would _ hurt, and jump down, landing a couple steps from him. Before I could regain my ability to stand up and breathe, Sora had me in a tight hug.

“Allie! Were you here this whole time?!”

“Pretty much.” I replied, once my voicebox started working properly again. “I have no sense of direction, though, so I figured I’d just… Wait.”

That made him laugh, the difference in posture once he let go of me showing relief. He really  _ had _ been worried about me. That was kinda cute, actually. It was like having a little brother, or something - one that wasn’t as irritating as I’ve been told they tend to be. Although I’ve heard of plenty of people who love their little brothers to death, of course.

Anyway.

I got to my feet, then, examining the other two. Tarzan was staring at me with what appeared to be confusion and maybe a pinch of consternation. Goofy, however, was glad to give me a friendly and somewhat excited wave when he noticed I was looking at him.

“Hiya, Allie!” He greeted.

“Heya, Goofy.” I replied with a smile. Then, to Tarzan, “Hello,” I said, and, motioning to myself, “I’m Allie.” I pointed to him, “You?”

“Allie.” His pronunciation was a little sloppy, but it seemed that he understood, at the very least. “You Allie.” He motioned at himself in much the same way I had done, “Me Tarzan.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Tarzan.” I said, still smiling, because it looks more inviting that way and I in no way wanted to put him off speaking with me.

It’s funny thinking how much more polite I was to him than to most of the more articulate folks I met later. Then again, I do prefer people who aren’t full of themselves, so I guess that probably had something to do with it. Hook, Ansem, Sephiroth, Hades, Ursula… All pretty full of themselves, and all of them got pretty much the same treatment - thinly veiled threats and a pinch of unamused sarcasm. I also wasn’t all that nice to Peter Pan, but I’m sure one can guess why we didn’t get along so well.

We soon left the area, and as it turns out I had been picked up just in time for two of my least favorite segments of the world - the hippos and the vines. Now, in-game I love these sections as they’re not nearly as nerve wracking for me. In real life they were significantly more terrifying, not least of all because real-life hippos have been known to bite the hell out of things.

That said, I didn’t do so bad with the whole Hippo Lagoon section, but it was still pretty spooky. The vines, on the other hand?

Well, I avoided all but the necessary swinging, I’ll tell you that much. Holding onto things isn’t one of my strong points, because I’m clumsy as hell anyway, but holding onto things while trying to initiate movement with those things is pretty much a big fat “No” for me. I’d really rather avoid talking about how many times I almost lost grip and fell into the depths.

It was a lot.

There was a lot of running around after that, and a lot of Heartless fighting, which led to no less than six level ups between all of us (Donald included, wherever the hell he was at) before we even got to the next fight with Sabor. “Next” because it was technically Sora’s second time fighting him. Her? Look dude, I dunno Sabor’s gender, I just know that Sabor’s big and ready to rip your face off without a second thought. And that I’ll be using male pronouns for him because that’s what I’ve always heard used and I’ve only seen like two sources calling him a her.

Anyways. Sorry about the pronoun-ramble.

I hadn’t fought Sabor yet, obviously, but Sora had already had a run in with him up in the treehouse. When we finally got to the Bamboo Thicket where we’d fight Sabor, the sound of his growl immediately put Sora and Tarzan on edge. I tensed as well, but I’d like to think it wasn’t quite as visibly.

With the four of us, and particularly me with my capability for non-magical long range attacks, the fight with Sabor didn’t actually take that long. And, sure, as usual I wasn’t so great with the bow, but I was certainly improving. Sora of course landed the “killing” blow. Winning the fight netted us White Fang, which is an accessory that I unfortunately do not remember the damned effect of.

Oh well.

We then headed back to the camp and into the tent (after eliminating a few pesky Heartless). The usual ‘cutscene’ played, as far as I’m aware, because Jane was missing so there was nothing I could really change.

As such, we quickly headed off again… Which my legs were growing quite tired of, if I’m honest. Running about in Wonderland with its fairly flat terrain and occasional jumps had been one thing, but running about Deep Jungle with all of its jumping and swinging and sliding was another entirely. Regardless, we soon made our way back through the Hippo’s Lagoon and the Climbing Trees to the area with the weird black fruits.

With Sora and I present, they went down fairly quickly, and Jane and Terk were freed without too much fanfare. Whatever usual dialogue goes on likely went on, with the exclusion of me having to introduce myself before we left.

I made it as short an affair as I could while still remaining polite.

“Miss Porter, I presume?” Despite not having heard her last name at any point during this visit, I couldn’t resist using it.

“Why, yes,” She said, looking thoroughly stunned and a little confused, “You may call me Jane, but… I do wonder who you are? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.”

“Not yet, no.” I answered first, then, “Allie Pierson. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Pleasantries out of the way, I threw a glance over my shoulder, toward the others who had started off, thankfully, before my introduction. “I would love to stay and chat, Jane, but I really must go with them.”

“Oh, of course!” She nodded quickly, “I’m sure we’ll be able to talk more later.”

“Undoubtedly,” I agreed, because I didn’t think it was likely I’d leave without talking to her a little bit anyway.

I like Jane. Tarzan isn’t by any stretch my favorite Disney film, but I’ve always enjoyed Jane’s character. She’s intelligent, kind, considerate, and delightfully sassy - exactly my kinda gal. I’d love the opportunity to talk to her a little, get a little more insight into what kind of person she is. I love picking apart personalities, even with real people. It’s an equally challenging and relaxing activity for me.

That aside, I stayed close to the others as we made our way toward the final boss of the world - Clayton. I spent the journey to the Cliff trying my darndest to remember how the fight goes. Immediately evident to me was that there were two phases, because I recalled having issues getting to phase two the single time I’d played through Deep Jungle. I also recalled that the duo of YouTubers I had watched play Kingdom Hearts had bitched about it a little, although admittedly they didn’t bitch as much as they talked about the differences between Clayton’s death in Kingdom Hearts and his canonical death in the movie. One of them kept making note of the fact that his movie death gave him nightmares.

… Anyway.

I could remember it was a two part fight, and I could vaguely remember that Clayton had potions, and something about not focusing on the Heartless around him. I remembered much more clearly that those Heartless were Powerwilds, and that I  _ hated _ those things.

Not nearly as much as I hated Wyverns and Large Bodies though.

Arriving at the Cliff, we all paused a moment. I took  _ that _ time to examine my team members’ stats. We’d all levelled up a few times, as I mentioned, but I already knew that. I was looking, instead, for if anyone needed one of the potions I had stowed away in my bag. Goofy still had  _ most _ of his health, and Sora was missing quite the chunk. He was panting quietly, as well. And Tarzan didn’t have any health missing.

I quietly offered Goofy a potion, which he accepted with obvious gratitude. I then offered Sora one, and he accepted it with just as much, if not more, gratitude, as well as a confused little, “How’d you know I needed one?”

“Call it intuition.” I said, patting his head. His spikes were shockingly soft.

_ “Mother’s _ intuition, maybe.” Goofy noted with a laugh, making Sora go somewhat red as he downed the potion.

I think I may have blushed too. “I’m not old enough to be a mother,”

“Doesn’t mean ya don’t have the instincts for it.” Goofy replied.

I squinted at him for a second before sighing and saying, “Fair enough.”

It felt weird having someone I barely knew acknowledge the mothering nature I’d been knowingly nurturing for years. It didn’t usually receive much recognition from anyone except very close friends, who I of course mother-henned significantly more than those I wasn’t as close to. And they typically acknowledged it by feeding the beast and calling me “Momma,” which was quickly becoming a more common nickname than I ever expected from anyone I hadn’t given birth to.

Once Goofy was done acknowledging it and both his and Sora’s health bars had ticked up to full, we all took a deep breath and entered the area where we would fight Clayton. My clear hesitance had, evidently, rubbed off on the two of them, and even Tarzan, to some extent, because it was only when I was actually ready to go into the fight that any of us moved.

Blah blah, typical cutscene, blah, time to beat up Clayton.

I don’t like Clayton one bit. Don’t like his attitude, don’t like his shifty little eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, you know.

As such, it was very,  _ very _ easy to get a distance away from him, take aim with my bow, and mercilessly shoot as many light arrows at him as I could. Reminding myself that this was necessary for the storyline and that I couldn’t get sent to jail for his murder made it much easier. My aim improved significantly in just the first few seconds of this fight.

I went after Clayton (from a safe distance) with extreme prejudice while Tarzan went after him up close and Sora and Goofy dealt with the Powerwilds to keep them off of us. Tarzan being in the midst of the fray made my aim improve further because I had to aim for Clayton while simultaneously making sure I didn’t hit Tarzan.

I lamented, internally, that this would be much easier if I had Cure, because although I by no means  _ wanted _ to hit Tarzan, if I  _ did _ and I had Cure, it could be quickly rectified.

Once the Powerwilds were temporarily dealt with, because undoubtedly there would be more, I flipped to my Keyblade and got in nice and close, where I proceeded to assist all of my teammates in beating the crap out of Clayton. That old bastard got beat up from all sides. Literally. He couldn’t even get away. He could just use the potion he had (he had more than one but only used one here) to try and stave off us getting his health halfway down.

We all retreated once we finally got it to the halfway mark, mostly because  _ I _ retreated and the others, evidently, followed my lead. That felt weird. Usually we all kind of followed Donald or Goofy’s orders, since, you know, they had more experience than us, and Sora was the one who we followed around since letting him explore couldn’t really hurt us too much, so being the one being followed felt odd. Almost like I was being given way more responsibility than I signed up for.

Maybe that was because it was.

Anyway.

The moment the Stealth Sneak put in an appearance, I decided that keeping a distance and protecting the others was my top priority. Just as preparation, I dished out a couple of potions to my teammates, which they seemed to appreciate.

From there, I managed to get myself to slightly higher ground by finding a rather skinny tree and shimmying up it. I thank video game physics for me being able to balance myself out and hold myself up with just my legs wrapped around the trunk of the tree while I fired off some light arrows. I also sent out a few fire ones that made Clayton panic just the slightest bit.

That was fun.

Once Clayton was officially bucked off of the Stealth Sneak for good, which didn’t take near as much effort as I expected, I continued to focus on the Stealth Sneak rather than Clayton in order to keep it off of… Well, mostly to keep it off of Sora, admittedly. And it worked for the most part, and I got eye-beamed at least four times, and on one such occasion (the third time, I believe) I fell off the tree I was on and landed flat on my butt, much to Sora’s amusement. He made sure to ask if I was okay before he laughed, of course, but still. He definitely got a good laugh out of it.

In the midst of fighting, too. Like, he only really stopped to make sure I was okay, and then kept on wailing on Clayton while he laughed. Goofy had apparently decided to help me with the Stealth Sneak, now, though, because when I picked myself up so I could run in and fight it up close, he was right there with me.

Thus, the last time I got lasered, I was about two feet from the damn thing.

It was not pleasant.

The fight didn’t last much longer after that, and when Clayton fell the battle ended, just like in the game. Don’t ask how that made any logical sense in-universe, because I have no clue, but I’m certainly not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Once we got the death animation out of the way, it was off we went once more. Once more my brain blanked a little on what we did, and everything’s rather fuzzy in my memory up until we arrived at the Keyhole. By that point I was having a discussion with Jane about something or other quietly. She really seemed to be warming up to me, too. It was nice.

Sora again asked if I wanted to lock the Keyhole, and once more I told him he could do it. Just like before, he perked right up and hopped to it. Once the deed was done, I suddenly just… Knew that I had a new keychain, apparently called “Scorchvine”. I resolved to check the stats later. For the time being I dealt with the cutscenes necessary, said my goodbyes to Jane and Tarzan, and followed Sora and Goofy.

Remember how I had no clue where Donald was?

As it turned out, he stayed with the Gummi ship the whole time. His level ups were for defending himself against hoards of Heartless by himself. I could relate.

He and Sora appeared to still be on rather tense terms with each other, and I really didn’t want to deal with that all the way to Olympus Coliseum… So I had to go Mom Mode again.

It felt  _ really _ weird grabbing Donald and Sora both and saying in as stern a tone as I could manage, “Now, you two make up.” And when Donald gave me a dirty look for this, I returned it, “This boat runs on  _ happy faces, _ remember?” I quirked a brow, still frowning.

Apparently I’ve got a better grasp on the Mom Face™ than I thought I did, or Donald really didn’t like being reminded he was a hypocrite, because he very quickly turned back to Sora and the two of them made nice.

Only when that was done did we all board the Gummi Ship and head off. I laid on the floor and stared at the ceiling for most of the trip, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone. I had had more than enough of actually doing things and feeling like I was in charge. It was nice to unwind a little bit… Not that it lasted, of course, but it lasted long enough.


End file.
